Yahoo CEO candidates line up
With Jerry Yang demoted at Yahoo (YHOO), who might be the struggling Internet giant’s next CEO?
Former COO Dan Rosensweig and ex-AOL chief Jon Miller are known to be on the candidate list held by Heidrick & Struggles’ uber-recruiters John Thompson and Gerry Roche. Also: Tim Armstrong, who oversees Google’s (GOOG) North American and Latin American sales and operations, and Todd Bradley, EVP of Hewlett-Packard’s (HWP) $28 billion Personal Systems Group. As for rumors that Meg Whitman could go to Yahoo, not a chance. EBay (EBAY) would be her last CEO job, she has long insisted. And since she left eBay last March, she has plowed into politics, co-chairing John McCain’s Presidential campaign. She’s now likely to run for governor of California.
As its talent has drained steadily, Yahoo has one lone insider who is a CEO contender: Sue Decker. The DLJ securities analyst-turned-CFO-turned-president of Yahoo pops up often at confabs, but she so protects her personal image that she hasn’t spoken for a profile in any publication in years. I spent a bit of time with her at Yahoo in September, when she was admittedly reeling from the stresses on her company: the attempted takeover by Microsoft (MSFT), the pending partnership with rival Google (subsequently canned) and the everyday battle to prove Yahoo’s value to employees as well as investors. “An individual’s tolerance for pain goes up over time,” Decker said, quite seriously.
Decker, who turned 46 on Monday, grew up in Denver. She was an avid skier who eventually made ski patrol. There on the slopes and at home with her dad, she said, she learned to “push through your fear threshold. He told me, ‘If it’s that hard, that’s exactly why you need to do it.’ ” The past year has been more than hard. Had she known what she’d be up against, “I would have said, ‘I can’t imagine leading through that. Yet you get up everyday. There are 50 things that you can focus on. You realize that one or two are really critical. You have to keep that clarity.”
While Yang has dealt with the board, the press and investors, Decker has hunkered down to fix Yahoo’s operations. It’s been a slog. Obviously, her record is stained by Yahoo’s ongoing poor performance and by reorganizations she has led that are ineffective so far. And to her detriment, many people say, she’s been loyal to Yang. Yahoo’s co-founder is vilified by some for rejecting Microsoft’s buyout offer of $33 a share. Yahoo is now trading around $11.
Beyond determination and durability, though, Decker has a few things going for her. She is smart, analytical, and very engaging when she lowers her guard. And she has a big fan in Warren Buffett, who last year added her to his Berkshire-Hathaway (BRK.B) board. She’s also a director of Costco (COST) and Intel (INTC) — and Pixar as well until Disney’s (DIS) acquisition of Steve Jobs’ film company. That stellar resume allowed her to make this year’s Fortune Most Powerful Women list, though her ranking fell from No. 20 to No. 39. Of course, the next CEO of Yahoo will need much more: a stellar management record too.
Photo: Maryanne Russell Photography
ps. Maybe if Yahoo had a full time president they would be in better shape and a more formidable competitor instead of a washout.
There is no way that an executive at a company like Yahoo with all its problems and challenges has any business serving on the board of three MAJOR companies. I don’t care how “smart” she is –she should be spending 110% of her time working at her day job, Yahoo. Ludicrous.
I have offered before to take over the helm at Yahoo for only half of Jerry’s pay. I will turn my site http://www.searchtheentirecraigslist.com over to family members and take Yahoo back into the mainstream,make it profitable and increase the prices of stock shares.
I am just waiting for the board to contact me for the vetting process.
Hey I have an idea, how about the uber search firm doing something out of the box like not recycling some of the same old news listed in this article. Decker, not the answer, all the others have already had their shot. No company can move forward without making changes and someone that has worked for AOL, HP, EBAY or Yahoo itself is not the answer. Step outside the box, go small company, go unknown, really make a difference rather then collecting your fee for bad advice.
did i just read a story about yahoo’s next ceo pick and at the end of it, see the writers signature?!?!?
since when were little cnn writers EVER considered so monumental in such little stories that they feel they need to sign the story with their signature?
lol….i guess the writer of this story thinks she’s so important that she needs to acknowledge her own work.
(or could it be she thinks she’s so un-important that she signs it to remind herself that she wants to feel in some way as though she’s actually a big part/contributor to cnn)
either way, that is pathetic. especially from a writer i can’t remember ever seeing anything written by.
phillip elmer D or anderson cooper, MAYBE….but this writer?!? now that’s funny!!!
why is it all the female writers for cnn that i’ve seen stories from, seem to have a “i’m a writer/reporter for cnn so i KNOW i’m special” type of attitude that comes across one way or another in their reports??
(i know they get paid peanuts but they are far from the star elephant in a circus, let alone any significance to the literary world)
i’m betting this writer has many, many pictures of herself, in one form or another, in her home/office and generally where ever she spends time.
the images that these types of people have in their own minds are greater than anything they’ll ever accomplish.
(i guess that ought to keep them going for awhile; until they run out of PROZAC of course)
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Patricia Sellers has written some of Fortune's most talked-about cover stories, including "Can Meg Whitman Save California?", Melinda Gates ("The $100 Billion Woman"), "MySpace Cowboys," Martha Stewart ("I cannot be destroyed"), Ted Turner ("Gone with the Wind") and Oprah Winfrey ("Oprah Inc."). And she has broken ground with insightful pieces on career management issues such as ego ("Get Over Yourself!"), and "Charisma: Do You Need It? Can You Get It?" Pattie chairs the annual Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, the preeminent gathering of women leaders in business, philanthropy, government, academia, and the arts. And she has helped oversee Fortune's "Most Powerful Women in Business" cover package since its launch in 1998. She started at Fortune in 1984, covering the big consumer brand companies.
Jessica Shambora started with Fortune as a reporter in June of 2008, following a stint as assistant editor at Travel+Leisure Golf. Shambora has written for Sports Illustrated, SI Latino, Women's Health, and Triathlete. She is a frequent contributor to Postcards. 
maddawg – The signature is a play on the title of this section, “Postcards”. After reading your sexist comment, it is not surprising in the least that this went way over your head.